rather than pick out individual stocks to trade, it can often be worthwhile to trade the indices themselves, especially in times of high volatility.

for those so inclined, i attach below charts for FTSE and FTSE 250, though one might equally be tempted to trade Dow or S&P, which is significantly broader in its coverage, or even NASDAQ

for ease of reading, i have attached 1 year and 3 month charts in each instance

Weak growth likely to win euro zone more time to cut deficits

BRUSSELS | Fri Feb 22, 2013 7:03am GMT

(Reuters) - Several euro zone countries are likely to miss deficit cutting targets because of a weak economy, the European Commission is expected to forecast on Friday, but they may be granted extra leeway rather than face disciplinary action.

The European Union executive will publish economic forecasts for the 27-nation bloc for 2013 and 2014.

German Ifo Business Climate 107.4 consensus 104.9 previous 104.3

Busy reporting week for the house builders next week.

Monday 25th BVS,PSN.

Tuesday RDW

Wednesday BDEV

Friday TW.

CAD Core CPI m/m 0.1% consensus 0.2% previous -0.6%

CAD Core Retail Sales m/m -0.9% consensus 0.1% previous -0.3%

CAD CPI m/m 0.1% consensus 0.3% previous -0.6%

CAD Retail Sales m/m -2.1% consensus -0.3% previous 0.2%

a spiffing week in the end, despite that nasty hiccup (hiccough?) yesterday ..... did much much better today than make good those paper and crystalised losses ..... by some fluke, i have even managed to get the rhythm correct for both dow and c+m index, both of which have proved very profitable indeed

long may it continue - fat chance!

You will be able to retire soon!

8---)

apart from wanting (need is something else) to fund my high maintenance lifestyle, in theory, i can retire now but i'ld quickly get bored and need to find some other people to annoy - so i stay on in the biz on a consultancy basis, and work (almost) as hard as i always did

i see dow is quietly sneaking up on that 14,000 level again

I wonder if the markets will ever stop going up against a back drop of awful global national fundamentals?

there is so much money washing around because worldwide interest rates effectively offer zero return

just as well, because the man or woman on the street is going to find it increasingly difficult to survive in an environment that is costing more and more by the day.

But wait a minute, all that money washing around doesn't get anywhere near the man in the street, its makeing the rich richer whilst trying to give the impression that economies are in good shape.

When the BoE, FED, ECB and the rest of those idiots turn the taps off watch out.

But leaving all that aside it would appear that the dumb index would like to have another stab at recent highs

not exactly true; much of that money will belong to pension funds and the like ..... though i agree markets are probably over-cooked, world economies are now on a recovery tack - yes, i agree that the eurozone still stinks though uk isn't as bad whatever fred and others like to blather about

and the percentage of the great unwashed that have made provision for their pension future?

as I said, the rich get richer.

including you in that case, even if you rarely wash

Uk has lost it's triple "A" rating, moodies down grade.,.

(Reuters) - "Britain suffered its first ever sovereign ratings downgrade from a major agency on Friday when Moody's stripped the country of its coveted top-notch triple-A rating, dealing a major blow to Chancellor George Osborne.
Moody's said weak prospects for British economic growth, which have thrown the government's deficit reduction strategy off course, lay behind its decision to cut the rating by one notch to Aa1 from Aaa."


I wonder if this will now be the trigger for the FTSE correction?

1) It was only Moody's. S&P are the only agency who really matter.
2) It had been widely expected and reported. Agencies historically downgrade a country's banks and then downgrade the country itself. UK banks were downgraded last summer.
3) A UK downgrade won't halt the Yen outflows. With his monster printing press, Shinzo is still winning the currency war.
4) Weaker sterling resulting from the downgrade should help UK exporters. As cyners suggested above, the UK economy is actually in quite good shape right now (albeit economic indicators don't necessarily show this because they lag too far behind the curve). The market is far more street-wise than a bunch of brain-dead economists though, and already realises this.
5) None of the above is likely to prevent a knee-jerk reaction early next week.

praise from hilary - whatever next?!

as far as i can determine, the french economy is a total shambles, scarcely helped by the loony gov't they chose to vote into power, and i think the germans are hiding a lot of bad stuff - but then i've thought that for years
the other eu countries are pretty much "also-rans"

much as fred and others deride our gov't's austerity measures, i remain convinced that the bitter medicine quickly administered was the correct course of action ...... labour's alternative of a slow drip-drip tightening (and let's add in some populist stuff by raising taxes against the better off) would have been disastrous

meanwhile, the chinese economy continues to thrive and india also seems to be pulling out of its slump ...... usa continues to work the indian rope trick and south america seems to be chugging along ok